AAA: Nearly 35 Million Americans Traveling Memorial Day Weekend

Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Close to 35 million Americans will mark the unofficial start of summer this Memorial Day weekend by hitting the road, a new forecast from AAA shows.

The automobile group projects 34.8 million people will travel 50 miles or more from home between Thursday and Monday -- a 0.9 percent decrease over last year.

“Although AAA expects to see more people traveling this summer as a whole, it looks like the summer travel season will begin with a relatively stable start,” Jessica Brady, spokeswoman, AAA Travel, The Auto Club Group, said in a statement. “However, more Americans traveled during last year’s holiday weekend than initially projected, so we could again be surprised by an increase in people planning to take a trip this Memorial Day.”

AAA expects 31.2 million Americans will be traveling by car during the holiday weekend, while 2.3 million will be opting to travel by air.